March 28, 2003
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore… Music Director James DePreist leads the Oregon Symphony in a concert featuring two soloists that includes music of Mozart and Rimsky-Korsakov, as well as Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major performed by pianist Michael Roll and a newer work by Swedish composer Jan Sandström, “A Motorbike Odyssey” with guest trombonist Christian Lindberg on April 26, 27 and 28 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. This concert is funded by a grant from the E. Nakamichi Foundation and the Jackson Foundation, with media support provided by The Oregonian.
Roll’s performance of Beethoven’s fourth piano concerto is a continuation of the Symphony’s Beethoven Piano Concerto cycle, which concludes next month. Roll, whose playing was described in a review of his CD of this work as “fresh, alert, sensitive and full of joy,” last appeared with the Symphony in 2000 performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1. Roll has made his reputation as a Beethoven interpreter and has recorded all five piano concertos with Tring Records. He appears regularly with the major orchestras of the United Kingdom, both at home and abroad, and has also performed in Hong Kong with the London Philharmonic, toured Japan with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Holland with the ECO, Germany and Switzerland with the BBC Symphony, Spain with the Royal Philharmonic, and Eastern Europe with the Scottish Chamber, Northern Sinfonia, and The Philharmonia. His festival appearances include Aldeburgh, Bath, Edinburgh, Granada, Hong Kong, Vienna, and the prestigious Klavier-Festival Ruhr in Germany. Roll’s engagements in the 2002/03 season include recitals in Berlin and Zagreb.
Lindberg is the world’s pre-eminent trombone soloist. Many well-known composers of our time have written works for him, and Lindberg has made over 60 solo recordings. Jan Sandström’s “Motorbike Concerto,” which is dedicated to Lindberg, is one of Lindberg’s signature pieces and he has performed it in one form or another more than 350 times. In addition, Lindberg and DePreist have recorded American trombone concerto with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra for the BIS label.
Lindberg has an eclectic and flourishing musical career not only as a soloist but also as a composer and conductor. He premiered his double concerto for trombone and trumpet at the Sion Festival, and is currently writing a flute concerto for Sharon Bezaly and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, a piece for wind orchestra commissioned by the International WASBE Conference, a trombone concerto commissioned for the Welsh Brass Festival, an euphonium concerto, a trumpet concerto for Spanish Brass, a trombone quartet and a brass quintet for the Stockholm Chamber Brass.
The concert opens with Mozart’s Symphony No. 31 in D major, “Paris,” commissioned 15 years after Mozart first visited Paris as a seven-year-old wunderkind. In keeping with Parisian tradition, Mozart made greater use of wind instruments than was customary in his native Austria, and this work gave him the opportunity to write for the clarinet for the first time, an instrument he would later immortalize with his Clarinet Concerto. DePreist and Lindberg follow with two works for trombone, the complimentary pairing of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Trombone Concerto, originally scored for wind band and arranged for orchestra by Lindberg, and Sandström’s “Motorbike Odyssey,” which Lindberg performs in motorcyclist garb, complete with leather pants. The two works together show the trombone’s complete range, from virtuoso passages to melodic lyricism.
The second half of the concert is devoted to Roll’s performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major. Musicologist Charles Rosen points out that most concertos begin with the orchestra, while the audience eagerly anticipates the soloist’s entrance. Ever the rule-breaker, Beethoven begins this concerto with the soloist alone. The work continues in a tender, gentle mood, until it builds to a life-affirming finish.
Oregon Symphony Classical concerts regularly include additional opportunities for listeners to learn more about the music and the orchestra. These activities include:
There will be a discussion one hour before the concert of the works to be performed. Media support for “Pre-Concert Talks” is provided by Classical Millennium.
Music Director James DePreist will speak briefly from the podium in “Saturday Interactive.” Media support for “Saturday Interactive” is provided by KINKfm102.
Audience members are invited to stay for a 15-20 minute panel discussion with Symphony staff and guest artists. Media support for “Sunday Post-Concert Discussion” is provided by KBPS Classical 89.9 FM.
Performances are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, April 26 and 27 at 7:30 p.m. and Monday, April 28 at 8 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Tickets range in price from $16 to $72 and may be purchased at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office (923 S.W. Washington), Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or charged by phone at 503-228-1353 or (800) 228-7343. Tickets also may be purchased at all Ticketmaster outlets (503-790-ARTS) or through Ticketmaster Online, via the Symphony’s Web site at www.orsymphony.org. Service fees may apply.
Born in England of Viennese parents, Michael Roll began playing the piano at a very early age. He studied with Fanny Waterman from the age of six, made his debut with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at the age of ten, played the Schumann Piano Concerto in the Royal Festival Hall, London, under Sir Malcolm Sargent at twelve, and at seventeen was the outstanding winner of the first Leeds International Piano Competition. Later, he took conducting lessons with Edgar Cosma in Paris. Michael Roll is now widely recognised as one of the finest interpreters of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann.
Michael Roll has played all over the world, working with such conductors as Boulez, Giulini, Leinsdorf, Masur, Previn and Sanderling. In 1974 he made a successful American debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Colin Davis, and has since visited the United States and Canada on several occasions.
Michael Roll appears regularly with the major orchestras of the United Kingdom both at home and abroad. He first visited Hong Kong with the London Philharmonic, toured Japan with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Holland with the ECO, Germany and Switzerland with the BBC Symphony, Spain with the Royal Philharmonic, and Eastern Europe with the Scottish Chamber, Northern Sinfonia, and The Philharmonia. Festival appearances have included Aldeburgh, Bath, Edinburgh, Granada, Hong Kong, Vienna, and the prestigious Klavier-Festival Ruhr in Germany.
Michael Roll has given recitals in London, Edinburgh, New York, Milan, Leipzig, Berlin and Dresden. He has played at the Proms, and with the London Philharmonic, London Mozart Players, Hallé, Helsinki Philharmonic with Sergiu Comissiona, and the Residentie Orchestra under their Music Director Evgeny Svetlanov. He has given concerts with Kurt Masur in Leipzig and London, with Valery Gergiev in Leningrad and the UK, and he has also performed and toured in Sweden, Germany, Italy, Monaco, Switzerland, Canada and Hong Kong.
The first CD of his Beethoven Concerto Cycle with the RPO under Howard Shelley for Tring Records has been enthusiastically received as an “exceptionally fine recording” (Gramophone), “the playing [being] world class from the outset” (Classic CD), “Roll ... is masterly from first note to last” (BBC Music Magazine). The second CD of this cycle has been awarded the Gramophone's Editor's choice. The third and last CD has received exceptionally fine reviews both in Gramophone and in BBC Music Magazine.
Engagements during the past seasons have included, among others, Beethoven recitals and performances of the Beethoven Piano Concertos in various European centres with orchestras like the Swedish Radio Symphony, the MonteCarlo Philharmonic, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Günther Herbig, the Radio Symfonie Orkest Hilversum under Arnold Katz, the Malmö Symphony Orchestra under Paavo Järvi as well as concerts with the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester under James DePreist, the BBC Philharmonic and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic under Junichi Hirokami, the London Mozart Players, the Oregon Symphony under James DePreist, and the Gelders Orkest under Lawrence Renes. Further, he has undertaken directing and playing from the keyboard programs more recently.
Engagements for the 2000/2001 season have included performances in Estonia, Germany, Romania, Switzerland and Sweden and his debut with the Chamber Orchestra of the Vienna Symphony, playing Mozart K 453. Engagements in the 2001/02 season include recitals in Estonia and the United States as well as a tour of Australia and New Zealand, which will lead him to the West Australian, Tasmanian, Queensland, Adelaide and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestras. This tour is followed by his debut concerts with the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne at the Cologne Philharmonie. Engagements in 2002/03 will include recitals in Berlin and Zagreb as well as Michael Roll's return to the Oregon Symphony under its music director James DePreist.
Mr. Roll is married to Bulgarian pianist Juliana Markova. They have a nineteen-year-old son Maximilian.
Very few instrumentalists through history can be compared with Christian Lindberg when it comes to achieving pioneering work for an instrument. He has had over 80 trombone concertos dedicated to him by some of the most prominent composers of our time and made over 60 solo recordings. The fact that he has been invited to play with both the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonics in the same year goes to prove that he has succeeded in his ambition to bring the trombone into the real limelight. A ballot voted him among the five best brass players of the whole 20th century and he is now one of the most sought after instrumental soloists.
Christian’s Chicago appearances last spring earned him enthusiastic reviews. He will be the first Swedish instrumentalist ever to play with the Berlin Philharmonics. With both these orchestras he performs the Berio Trombone Concerto “SOLO,” a work which has attracted an enormous international interest and which Christian by now has played in almost every important music country in the world. Performances in Trondheim, in Dublin with the RTE Orchestra, with the Barcelona Orchestra, with the National Orchestra in Brussels, with the Swedish Radio Orchestra in Stockholm and with the Orchestra National de Lyon are now in line for the coming seasons.
The trombone concertos traditionally associated with Christian Lindberg, Jan Sandström’s “Motorbike Concerto” and “Cantos de La Mancha,” remain much in demand and Christian Lindberg will play them among others with the Galician Orchestra in La Coruna, with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Paavo Järvi and with the Oregon Symphony and James DePreist. Christian will play the solo part in Kallevi Aho´s Symphony No. 9 with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington and at the London PROMS with the Lahti Orchestra. Another colorful new addition to Christian Lindberg’s repertoire is the trombone concerto by the Swedish composer Fredrik Högberg, “The Return of Kit Bones,” a Wild West-inspired imaginative piece that requires courage both of the performer and the conductor. This piece will be performed with the Northern Sinfonia in Newcastle, with the Prague Symphony Orchestra in Prague and with the Limburg Symphony Orchestra in Maastricht.
The Högberg Concerto is closely linked to the successful TV film “Brassbones,” which was filmed in the authentic Spanish Wild West locations. The film has attracted much attention and is now being distributed internationally by RM Associates, one of the world’s leading TV distributors, who will introduce it at the prestigious MIPCOM Festival this autumn.
Another increasingly important “backbone” in Christian Lindberg’s repertoire is his own compositions. He has performed his “Mandrake in the Corner” with great success all over the world and it is scheduled for next season at the Klangspüren Festival in Austria, with the Hamburger Symphoniker and with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra.
After the international success with “Mandrake in the Corner,” Christian finds himself in the incredible situation that he has, in a very short time, become a sought after composer with commissions booked in as far ahead as 2006. The Sion Festival saw the première of his double concerto for trombone and trumpet performed by Håkan Hardenberger and Christian Lindberg. He is writing a flute concerto for Sharon Bezaly and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, a piece for wind orchestra commissioned by the International WASBE Conference, a trombone concerto commissioned for the Welsh Brass Festival, an euphonium concerto, a trumpet concerto for Spanish Brass, a trombone quartet and a brass quintet for the Stockholm Chamber Brass. The first CD dedicated to Christian’s works has been released on BIS and has been received enthusiastically by the international record press, particularly in France, and BIS Records has expressed the wish to devote the same amount of attention to Christian Lindberg’s development as a composer as they give to his other activities.
This winter, the long awaited recording of Christian Lindberg’s most treasured classical concertos will be recorded together with the Australian Chamber Orchestra on BIS and other recording projects are being planned.
Many concert organizers have been attracted by the diversity of Christian Lindberg’s talent. Since his conducting debut with the Northern Sinfonia, Christian has developed his conducting career in a very satisfying way. He has worked very successfully with a number of chamber orchestras and several Christian Lindberg “profiles,” where Christian will appear both as a soloist, conductor and composer, are planned: A re-engagement with the Northern Sinfonia, a production with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and at the International WASBE Conference. Last summer he was appointed joint artistic leader of the Sion Festival where he played both in chamber music program, as a soloist with the orchestra and gave the world première of his own Double Concerto for Trumpet and Trombone together with Håkan Hardenberger and the Orchestra Verdi di Milano. His creative choice of artists and repertoire for this event was highly praised in the Swiss press. Further conducting commitments include the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and Jönköping Sinfonietta. A CD devoted to Christian Lindberg as a conductor will also be recorded by BIS.
Always trying to find some time for chamber music in his season, Christian visited some of the major British concert halls together with the pianist Roland Pöntinen in autumn 2002, including a concert at the Barbican in London. He also gave celebrated unaccompanied solo recitals in Brugge and Groningen.
Christian gathers energy and inspiration for all this unparalleled creativity together with his wife and children on their beautiful peninsula outside Stockholm.